on the first day of christmas, my true love gave to me

[self_composed]

[It is now Christmas in the latest time zone on Earth,] Bella announces, when this becomes the case. [C'mere.]

She has conjured a syringe of venom. There are no known effects relating to any particular person doing the turning, but she's gone ahead and duplicated her alt's venom - what would be hers, if she turned - regardless.

She hides it behind her back and smiles.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice opens his eyes.

Everything is so much more. Brighter, sharper, louder, with a depth and clarity that human senses could never achieve.

And out of all of them, the thing that's most is how much he loves Bella. It's the same as it was, but different. Bigger. Clearer. Deeper. Louder. Sharper. Brighter.

Grinning, he kisses her forehead. He's still hugging her, and the pressure of his arms is as delicate as you could want, but the kiss hits hard enough to bruise.

[nonbird]

...

Lazarus awwwwwwwwws.

[self_composed]

Bella permits a moment of snuggly distraction, though she winces at the excess kiss for the split second it takes before tingly painkilling regen fixes it.

Then: "Not a star?" She peers at Alice's chain of coins.

[nonbird]

"Not a star," Lazarus repeats. "Bigger than a star. I didn't know they came bigger than stars."

[edgeofyourseat]

The very last coin on the end of the long, long string of stars is eight-pointed, and unlike every other coin, it doesn't lie in a flat plane: its eight points are arranged so that you could draw a perfect cube between them, each four in a square. The hole through its centre has six openings.

"Whoa," says Alice.

[self_composed]

"Whoa is right," Bella says, pinching it between her fingers to hold it up and get a closer look at it. "Damn. This thing looks evil."

Alice can't see magic, or her coins; she spends the hex and the star to declaw the evil-looking thing right then without changing her expression at all. Used undeclawed, it would probably incinerate an entire planet, maybe send the Sun supernova. "I should probably hold onto this," she says anyway.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Take it," he says, kissing her forehead again. This time he gets it right. "Love you."

[self_composed]

She takes it, and most of the stars and hexes he's carrying too, and kisses his forehead too. "Love you."

[nonbird]

"Speaking of which," says Lazarus, "I think I would describe Alice's power and his vampire mate bond as... snuggling. Do they usually do that?"

[self_composed]

"Do mate bonds and powers usually snuggle?" Bella asks. "How would I know?"

[nonbird]

"I have no idea. But it's very cute," he says. "It looked, right when you opened your eyes," he says to Alice, "like your power was suspicious, and the mate bond just... was itself at it, and then your power decided it was okay and snuggled up."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Aww!"

[self_composed]

"That's precious," giggles Bella. "We'll take you to the Golden Empire next time we get an in there and you can see if anybody else's mate bond snuggles with their witchcraft."

[nonbird]

"I don't think it will, actually," he says. "Most people's powers aren't about the same things as Alice's. But I definitely want to see."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I bet you'd love having a brain like this," Alice says to Bella. "It's not just faster, it's bigger."

[self_composed]

"Yeah, I'm serial, not parallel," Bella muses. "Next time I want an upgrade I'll go... horizontal, so to speak."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I'm gonna go hug Lazarus now," Alice announces, and disentangles himself very carefully from Bella.

[nonbird]

Lazarus's world is suddenly full of hug.

"Hello," he says bemusedly.

[self_composed]

Bella giggles. "So cute."

[nonbird]

"Yes he is," says Lazarus, hugging back.

[edgeofyourseat]

"It's weird hugging somebody I can't smell properly," says Alice. "Do you squish?" He squeezes a little bit tighter. "Nope, you don't. You are unsquishable."

[self_composed]

"You aren't any less able to smell humans than you were before," Bella says. "Although I suppose it's comparing against everything else."

[edgeofyourseat]

"My nose thinks he's not really here," he says, and lets go, and turns to investigate the bubbly stuff.

[nonbird]

Lazarus blinks after him.

[self_composed]

"When I said we'd arranged for him not to eat people," Bella says, "I meant that he's got a human-specific air filter so he doesn't instinctively lunge for the carotid just from being in the room with us. But since you've got your defense on, if the idea of Alice ineffectually gnawing on you happens to amuse, say the word and he can turn it down."